Theory on Petunia

[Pamela Rosen]

No: HPFGUIDX 156600

Pam:
> What do you think of the possibility that Vernon met the Evanses, 
who we know were proud of Lily's "witchiness" , suppose Vernon had a 
wizard candy joke played on him or something when meeting the family 
(who would put that past James?) and Vernon had a purpleface fit and 
said he'd never marry a witch and Petunia took the opt-out spell?
> That would explain Vernon's irrational fear of magical people even 
before Harry arrived, that would explain Petunia's knowledge of the 
magical world, Vernon's acceptance (such as it was) of Baby Harry 
(when else have we EVER seen Petunia stand up to Vernon?) and it 
would explain why, if it should happen, Dudley would acquire magical 
abilities as a late teenager. Wild, but what do you think?


Laurawkids:
Do we know that *both* of L & P's parents were Muggles? If one were 
magical, there would have been way more opportunity to prank 
Vernon. What if Petunia were expected to be magical because one of 
the parents were? That would make Lily being magical even more 
annoying to Petunia, AND Lily would have been able to do magic at 
home. 

I'd love to hear some of the accidental magical happenings that 
happened to Petunia when she was growing up! 

But, your theory about *P being magical/going to Hogwarts/opting 
out* holds only if Hogwarts had no "NO underage magic in a non-
magical house during breaks" rule. Otherwise, Petunia not knowing 
of the restriction hints at her not going to Hogwarts.


Pam:
Thank you so much for responding to my post.  I regretted sending it the moment the screen returned me to my email after I hit send, and saw several e-mails refering to JKR's quote "Petunia never has, never will..." I knew I really blew it.

So I guess my wild theory turns into a question: why would Vernon marry into a family with witches in it if he was so bigoted against the wizarding community?  Knowing there was a remote possibility his own children might be magical? And how would he be so bigoted against the wizarding community if he had never heard of them, never met the Evanses, and didn't even believe they existed?  What would have caused such hatred? It would be like earthlings hating Venusians without any knowledge that they even exist.

It seems that Vernon's hatred of all things magical, particularly Hogwarts, is completely unfounded. He doesn't recognize the wizards on the street the night Harry is brought to them. He doesn't have any idea what is going on. How does he know not to let Harry see his Hogwart's letter? Clearly he knows what it is, and yet he's never seen one. And yet, inexplicably, he accepts a magical child into his house, based on something that someone magical told him.  It doesn't make sense.  The finger is still pointing at Petunia, and what she knows, do you agree?

Pam